SB600 will soon be voted on by the full state senate – it’s the bill that returns to GOP primary voters the right to elect their party’s senior leadership. You can learn everything you need to know about the legislation by clicking here.
Four years ago, back when our legislators were still completely ignoring the existence of the state party, SB600 passed the state senate unanimously. That’s right – unanimously. Now, because of corrupt pressure from a misguided little group of people who have demonstrated their incompetence on a grand scale, a handful of Republican legislators are backing away from supporting the notion of opening up the party to new leadership.
It’s worth emphasizing again an important reason for their change of heart. A few of the individuals who have pulled their support from SB600 are interested in running for higher office. As everyone knows, that takes big money, and lucky for them, the state party might well have access to the kind of money they’ll need to run.
The so-called “ethics” reform law passed last year still allows the state party to collect massive sums from special interests that have very large contracts with the state. Guess who wants access to that cash? Some of those same legislators who are now against giving Republican primary voters a right to pick their party’s leadership want to stay on friendly terms with members of the failed cabal that runs the state party and controls the moolah.
Make no mistake: incompetent Republican leadership is the reason Republican principles are not advanced in Illinois. Click through the archives on this website if you want to read about what exactly has to change.
One example is that we have to have leaders that grasp concepts like “mass media.” Fortunately for our state party and our G.A. Republican caucuses, web resources like Wikipedia exist where schooling is available with a point and a click. They can start right here (emphasis added):
“Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a [state]. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines… The concept of mass media is complicated in some internet media as now individuals have a means of potential exposure on a scale comparable to what was previously restricted to select group of mass media producers.”
There is no longer any reason to hope that our current “leaders” have the incentive to learn or ability to win. If anyone thinks Illinois would ever return to limited government, achieve efficient and high quality public schools, or change its corrupt political culture without new leadership and a renewed and invigorated state Republican Party – I wish they’d send me an outline of how this miracle can occur.
Those who currently hold power right now – either in office as a legislator or in party leadership – have power to make a difference right now. They have power to advance an agenda. If they’re not doing so, they either don’t care to, or are incompetent.
In either case, it’s time for a change. An important step on the road to that change will be returning the power to Illinois Republican voters to choose their party leadership. Please call your state legisator (of either party) and tell them to support SB600. You can find their phone number here.
